My 123 Favorite Video Games, Ranked
The list is at an odd number because it is simply every game I've ever played that I would consider 'a favorite' of mine, with no upper limit. And I guess that there are this many of them! I put a lot of thought into the rankings but this is going to be a living document - positions will shift as I replay them and (hopefully) many games will be added. All future updates will be noted in the comments as they happen.
I put a little bit about how I was introduced to each of these and my history with them in the notes. Please feel free to ignore all that if you don't feel like reading my LiveJournal - it's rambly and mostly unedited. Like everything else on this site, it's kind of more for me than anyone else.
The below is a list of games I consider "Unranked" - provisionally on the list but which need to be replayed to get a good idea of where I should put them. Hopefully I will get through these soon and resolve their placements!
UNRANKED:
- Chrono Cross (Square/PS1/1999)
- Crimson Shroud (Level-5/3DS/2012)
- Dark Souls III (FromSoftware/Multiplat/2016)
- Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (Capcom/NDS/2010)
- Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Restoration of Erathia (New World Computing/PC/1999)
- Pathologic (Ice-pick Lodge/PC/2005)
- Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box (Level-5/NDS/2007)
- Return of the Obra Dinn (Lucas Pope/PC/2018)
- Shadow of Destiny (Konami/PS2/2001)
- Shadow Warrior (3D Realms/PC/1997)
- Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo/NSW/2017)
- The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Nintendo/GB/1993)
- Xenogears (Square/PS1/1998)
- Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward (Chunsoft/3DS/2012)
I put a little bit about how I was introduced to each of these and my history with them in the notes. Please feel free to ignore all that if you don't feel like reading my LiveJournal - it's rambly and mostly unedited. Like everything else on this site, it's kind of more for me than anyone else.
The below is a list of games I consider "Unranked" - provisionally on the list but which need to be replayed to get a good idea of where I should put them. Hopefully I will get through these soon and resolve their placements!
UNRANKED:
- Chrono Cross (Square/PS1/1999)
- Crimson Shroud (Level-5/3DS/2012)
- Dark Souls III (FromSoftware/Multiplat/2016)
- Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (Capcom/NDS/2010)
- Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Restoration of Erathia (New World Computing/PC/1999)
- Pathologic (Ice-pick Lodge/PC/2005)
- Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box (Level-5/NDS/2007)
- Return of the Obra Dinn (Lucas Pope/PC/2018)
- Shadow of Destiny (Konami/PS2/2001)
- Shadow Warrior (3D Realms/PC/1997)
- Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo/NSW/2017)
- The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Nintendo/GB/1993)
- Xenogears (Square/PS1/1998)
- Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward (Chunsoft/3DS/2012)
123 Games
Little known fact, but I am an absolute god at all these plastic instrument games. GUITAR HERO broke my brain and I immediately devoted my life to getting sick at them, like drilling songs over and over, irritating my friends. Never had that experience with any game before, really. ROCK BAND 1 was a revelation. Five stars on expert, every instrument, every game, all the way down. Eventually got me to into real instruments, bought a guitar, bought a bass, bought drums, took music classes at college. But kept playing the shit out of these things. By the time RB3 here rolled around, I was the ROCK BAND guy among my friends, bringing the party with me. Took a week off for this. It was glorious, but it was the end of the line. Bittersweet one for me, and also the peak.
Grandpa had this, like every other cool adventure game that came out between 1990 and 1996. My aunts were really into this - they were smart - liked puzzles and complex board games. They taught me to appreciate the more intellectual pace, taking notes, being observant. To this day, still love games that make me write shit down. And I had played MYST at some point before this, but come on. This is the real MYST. We all know it.
Got the Battle Chest in 1999. Everyone had the StarCrafts, man. It was like they came issued with your tower compters.
Bought a PSP for it at release in 2011. Despite being a FFT superfan for close to ten years by the time this remake was announced, I somehow didn't understand what Tactics Ogre was, or it's legacy. I knew about Ogre Battle, but when someone was like, "hey, you know there's like ... another FFT, right? And it's, like, maybe even better?" and then I saw some screenshots, etc., my hype reached insane levels and I had to instabuy a whole new system just to try it. I was not disappointed.
Had it in 1995/1996 when it came out. You had to.
Big closet TRIALS guy, played em all. I was super pumped for this when it came out. Shit, now I want to play some TRIALS.
I remember seeing an advertisement for this in the back of one of those bigass PC game magazines where the last 40 pages is like a catalog or whatever, and I DEMANDED my dad buy it for me because I loved DARK FORCES so much. Dad explained that it wasn't out yet, it was just a placeholder, and I flipped out. One of the only dipshit-kid tantrums of mine that I remember. Totally irrational, haha.
Got it on release - this was my entry point into the franchise after seeing my buddy play DW5 and 6. Not sure if it was a blessing or a curse that I got in right at the peak.
My well-worn Star Wars trilogy VHS set (you know the one) ensured that this was an insta-purchase when I found out it existed, and given the date that was out and that I got the CD-ROM version (as well as CD-ROM X-WING, I think simultaneously), sometime in 1995/1996.
Another grandpa's house game, but it was the CD version so probably 1993/1994. This one I took home with me because it was just too big to finish in one visit to his homestead.
Played when it was new-ish in 1993-1994. This was another one my grandpa had, being on the cutting edge of CD-ROM technology, and I remember going on trips to his house and playing it at night after everyone else went to sleep. I was like seven and it was frickin' scary!! And so adult! Sexual themes!
Another Apogee shareware fav around 1994. Another one I only played the later chapters of much, much later in life.
Another Apogee platformer that was in the handful of the very first games I ever played in like 1991-1992. I still have the floppy.
One of my biggest finds in my early emulation days in like 1999. Had no idea what I was doing because of the nihongo ... until it all clicked. Still playing every damn Picross game I can get my hands on to this day. And still humming the music from this.
Another of my cool grandpa's games - he must have gotten it when it was brand new in 1995. I remember going up North to his place and just discovering it and being like, what ... there's ANOTHER 7TH GUEST? For some reason I was struck by the idea of a game like that having a sequel. Weird to think about.
Another of the PC first games circa 1992. This one was super old and basically impenetrable but that didn't stop five/six year old me from beating my head against it - and loving it! Much later in life, I would actually beat it (with a guide) and that was a fulfillment that's hard to describe.
This may have been my first video game ever, in like 1991 or so. I was five and just learning to use my dad's DOS-based computer and he would bring home shareware games on floppies that he got from friends at work or conferences or whatever. I loved this shit, really captured my imagination. Adventure games would come to define my PC gaming life, and then FPS, but it started with Apogee platformers.
Played the shareware version sometime after its release, probably 1995 or so. This was one I never saw the non-free episodes of until like fifteen years later. That is such a weird feeling.
Extremely hyped for this when it came out in 1999. My good friend who loved Star Wars and video games had to literally ask me stop talking about it to him at school.
Another slow-paced mystery game with the aunts around 1992 or so. But I recognized those sprite graphics and the parser from KQ1 and KQ4 and was instantly hooked. Having that template applied to a different genre was really exciting to me - eye opening.
Not sure exactly, but I must have been introduced to this sometime after 1991 when I learned to use computers at five-ish years old. Not quite my first game ever, but that's only because we didn't have it, my grandpa did. Yeah, that's right, my grandpa was extremely cool and had a bunch of computer games, a few more of which are on this list.
The last of the SCI engine Sierra games for me. This one I played alone - not with grandpa, not with the aunts - all me baby. (Didn't get very far.)
Another of the very first games I played in 1992-ish. After mostly card games and platformers, these things blew the doors off my imagination of what a computer game could be.
10 Comments
LIST UPDATE 6/4/2023:
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Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (#106) replayed and rank confirmed
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Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (#106) replayed and rank confirmed
LIST UPDATE 6/10/2023:
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Katamari Damacy (#64) replayed and moved up to #61
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Katamari Damacy (#64) replayed and moved up to #61
LIST UPDATE 6/16/2023:
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We Love Katamari (#52) replayed and rank confirmed
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We Love Katamari (#52) replayed and rank confirmed
LIST UPDATE 8/11/2023:
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Pokemon Gold (unranked) replayed and removed
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Pokemon Gold (unranked) replayed and removed
LIST UPDATE 11/23/2023:
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The Case of the Golden Idol (#117) added
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The Case of the Golden Idol (#117) added
LIST UPDATE 12/10/2023:
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Super Mario Bros. (#88) and Super Mario World (#37) replayed and ranks confirmed
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Super Mario Bros. (#88) and Super Mario World (#37) replayed and ranks confirmed
I saw Deadly Premonition on this list and decided to give it a spin, despite its technical shortcomings, I found the game to be quite engaging, primarily due to the charming characters and the captivating dialogue between York and the town's population.
Quite the experience and glad I did
Quite the experience and glad I did
@Kawasaki0504 Awesome! Glad you liked it!
LIST UPDATE 03/25/2023:
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Heroes of Might & Magic III: The Restoration of Erathia added to unranked list
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Heroes of Might & Magic III: The Restoration of Erathia added to unranked list
DJSCheddar
11 months ago
And yeah I definitely dont want to discourage you because I would love to see yours, but for the record this has taken me actual years to finally do haha